Fire Rock in the Star Field

[photoman]

Hello! I have yet another idea that popped into my head. I got this idea when I was sorting through some photos I took while I was on vacation (About 1500 of them ). The images that sparked it were:

50mm f/1.8 119 second exposure, Canon Rebel XT

Panarama of 7 photos at 50mm perspective

 

When I looked at these I though, Hey why not make that in A:M

 

So here is where I am at:

15min3x3pass 768x1024px

The giant monolithic rock is basic a simple extruded model with some eXtreme displacement mapping.

I originally modeled it in A:M and opened it in zBrush to sculpt in the details, but I could not figure out for the life of me how to get UVs that would work....

Anyway I made a few seamless textures and displaced it using those.

 

C&C Welcome

 

Photoman

[robcat2075]

I think the big rock need more variation in the detail. Right now they are all about the same scale.

[photoman]

Update:

 

Just a few minor things tweaked.

 

I feel like its missing something.... dont know what though...

 

Photoman

[Eric2575]

I really like your stuff, but this one needs attention to detail.

 

Let's start. The background is spinning too fast, almost obscuring the stars. The tree's shape is too unnatural, you can do better. Also, the bark is too fresh and even looking for a dead tree. The main boulder's shape needs work, still too even and smooth. The pointy triangular top doesn't fit with the rest of the smooth boulder. That wormy texture you've got all over the rock doesn't look right. Maybe if you invert the bump value so it looks like they are cracks instead of worms crawling on the surface. The material is also affecting the specular too much. Next focus your attention on the ground between the tree and the brush. The ground is too smooth and it has no other rocks, pebbles, or other debris you might find in nature. Give it something to break it up and make it more interesting and natural looking. I would loose the foreground brush completely and start over with that. It almost looks like razorwire. You need a lot more diversity here and different elements to make up realistic brush. You might consider using three or four reference pics of brush and tumbleweed and make decals out of them for several grass emitters. Definitely mix it up here. You might also want to tone down the orange light on the left of the rock. Unless there are some campers making a bonfire just off to the left, that intensity is way off the charts. Take a look at my desert scene for an idea of the foreground and the brush elements. All of the grasses and brush are created using decals on grass emitters. http://www.hash.com/stills/displayimage.ph...&fullsize=1

[TheSpleen]

I love the feel of it.

[photoman]

Thank you Eric for the C&C. I agree with you.

I am trying to simulate a long exposure so thats why I am "spinning" the stars. The bright oerange light is to simulate the light from a fire.

I dont really like the rock texture to much right now (I have a really nice zBrush sculpt but it is about 2mil poly's and I dont know how to convert most that to displacement and etc....). I plan to rework those textures. As for the specular the settings are : Spec Size:5% Int: 5% so I dont know why it has that look.

I plan to change the Hair/grass to image emittors also.

The ground is very simple right now, I am trying to think of a way to get the best dusty feel, whether it be displacement mapping or actually modeling a bunch of pebbles...

 

I also tried making a day atmosphere with some radiosity:

1million photons, took about 10 minutes to calculate the radiosity. And as you can see it is taking a bit to render

 

Photoman

[photoman]

Quick input. I happen to be on my windows partition now and on A:M and I opened at 75k poly version of the rock I had sculpted in as a prop. (For some reason props dont work on the mac ver of A:M...).

50sec 4pass 768x1024

I hastly made a procedural texture and slapped it on and got this:

 

Kinda random post...

 

Photoman

[Eric2575]

I like this rock better than the first, but the strata is still a bit too regular. Please, please lose that Ice cream cone tip

 

Also noticed you put green grass in the daytime version. I really like the scene better as a dusty and dry environment.

[photoman]

Update:

I redid the tree and am in the process of tweaking the rock's texture.

I did take out the pointy top too. I want to use the poly rock but it would equate to a 70k patch model and I dont want to spend the hours weeding out splines.

The grass has some problems that I need to work on a bit. I also need to "update" the ground around the tree and add some rocks and pebbles.

 

I really like the day radiosity shot too, I plan on working on both. I find that radiosity really does give that extra push in realism.

 

Photoman